In 2013, Indian law codified workplace protection for working women, both in the formal and informal sectors under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) (POSH) Act. 

A report of Human Rights Watch says that India has failed 94 % of its women who work in the informal sector - this includes women who work as domestic help, sweepers, construction workers and so on.

Suno India’s Sneha Richhariya spoke to domestic workers, Local committee members, lawyers and civil society organisations to understand how the law has played out for working women in the informal sector.

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On 28th February 2024, Wakeel Hassan, Uttarakhand Tunnel rescue hero once again made headlines when his house was razed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).  The demolition of Hassan’s house was the most recent in the spate of evictions across the country. There have been questions over why the government disproportionately targets working-class and minority community people such as Wakeel Hassan.

Here is an extended cut of an interview with Dr. Ghazala Jamil from an episode of the Suno India Show where Suno India’s Menaka Rao reported on the aftermath of the April 2022 Jahangirpuri riot followed by a demolition drive. Ghazala is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance,  Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

In this episode, hosted by Suno India’s Sneha Richhariya, Ghazala explains what makes an illegal structure in a city and what makes some illegal structures more illegal than others.

References:

Uttarakhand tunnel rescue hero's home demolished in Delhi; Declines DDA's temporary accommodation offer

MP demolition drive: Authorities face charges of doing away with due processMCD to beautify city, remove encroachment from February 6 ahead of G20 summit

Mehrauli demolition: Survey DDA relied on was found incomplete by HC panel last year

Olga Tellis & Ors vs Bombay Municipal Corporation & Ors. Etc on 10 July, 1985

THE PUBLIC PREMISES (EVICTION OF UNAUTHORISED OCCUPANTS) ACT, 1971

Thousands Traumatised In New Delhi: As Law Is Ignored, Homes & Lives Are Torn Apart For G20 Summit

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Even as the MPs were suspended, in December 2023, the Parliament passed laws completely upending the major criminal laws of our country. What does this mean in a democracy? 

On 30th January 2024, Maansi Verma, a lawyer and public policy researcher, posted a thread on the platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) about the ‘wrongs’ committed by the government during its term. The list of ‘wrongs’ mentioned in this thread is glaring enough to make any concerned citizen worry. 

Suno India’s Sneha Richhariya spoke to Maansi Verma, who is also the founder of “Maadhyam”- which is a civic engagement initiative working to bring Parliament and policy-making closer to people.

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In this episode of The Suno India Show shorts, we talk about the live-in relationships as defined under Uttarakhand’s Uniform Civil Code Bill that was passed on February 7, 2024. Suno India’s Menaka Rao and Sneha Richhariya discuss the law threadbare and why it should matter to everyone in India. 

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In this episode, we discuss the Supreme Court’s verdict on electoral bonds, a scheme that allowed anonymous donations to political parties. We explain why the court ruled it unconstitutional and what it means for Indian democracy.
We are republishing a part of our episode from our show “Every Voice Matters'' which was originally published in 2019. The host and Suno-India editor Padma Priya then spoke to General Anil Verma of the Association of Democratic Reforms on this contentious topic.  The second part of the episode talks about electoral bonds. This is his take; 

Also listen: Electoral bonds controversy – RTI documents reveal the lies

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Even though Kala-azar is closer to elimination in the country, questions related to how the disease spreads still remain unanswered. Only recently, scientists in India and Bangladesh have understood the dynamics of how Post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis or PKDL, the skin manifestation of the disease, spreads kala-azar. For the third podcast in the series on kala-azar, Suno India’s Menaka Rao speaks to Dr Rahul Chaubey, entomologist at Kala-azar Medical Research Centre, Muzaffarpur to understand the latest in vector research.

Reporting for this story was supported by the MSF-DNDi Grant on Neglected Tropical Diseases as part of the Without Borders Media Fellowship. The fellowship encourages independent, impartial and neutral reporting on health and humanitarian crises. 

References

Transmission Dynamics of Visceral Leishmaniasis in the Indian Subcontinent – A Systematic Literature Review - PMC
Livestock and rodents within an endemic focus of Visceral Leishmaniasis are not reservoir hosts for Leishmania donovani | PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Establishing, Expanding, and Certifying a Closed Colony of Phlebotomus argentipes (Diptera: Psychodidae) for Xenodiagnostic Studies at the Kala Azar Medical Research Center, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India - PMC
On a Herpetomonas Found in the Gut of the Sandfly, Phlebotomus Argentipes, Fed On Kala-Azar Patients - PMC
Ten years of kala-azar in west Bengal, Part I. Did post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis initiate the outbreak in 24-Parganas? - PMC
Bionomics of Phlebotomus argentipes in villages in Bihar, India with insights into efficacy of IRS-based control measures | PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

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Kala Azar was a public health problem in India till recently. In 2023, the disease is close to the elimination target set up by the World Health Organisation. As per the WHO target, there should be less than one case per 10,000 population at block level. In this second podcast in a series on Kala Azar, Suno India’s Menaka Rao reports on the key contributions of various stakeholders and policies. She spoke to Dr Shyam Sundar, who runs the Kala Azar Medical Research Centre, in Muzaffarpur, Dr Krishna Pandey, Director of Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna, and Rakesh Kumar, Bihar state in-charge for Kala Azar. 

Reporting for this story was supported by the MSF-DNDi Grant on Neglected Tropical Diseases as part of the Without Borders Media Fellowship. The fellowship encourages independent, impartial and neutral reporting on health and humanitarian crises. 

References

Kala-azar in India – progress and challenges towards its elimination as a public health problem
History of Kala-Azar in India - PMC
Miltefosine in the treatment of leishmaniasis: Clinical evidence for informed clinical risk management
Elimination programme for kala-azar in India and Bihar during the last century - ignoring the obvious.
An E-mail interview with Prof. Shyam Sundar - PMC
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa021556
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa0903627
Safety and efficacy of short course combination regimens with AmBisome, miltefosine and paromomycin for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Bangladesh - PMC
https://scroll.in/pulse/819854/india-has-been-talking-about-defeating-kala-azar-since-1947-and-now-has-a-good-chance-of-doing-so

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This was a very sombre Republic Day, coming in a few days after the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22, 2024, churning up questions on the secular nature of our country. The inauguration of the Ram Mandir marks a significant chapter in our country’s history. The temple's construction replaced the 16th-Century Babri masjid, which was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992, leading to nationwide riots and the tragic loss of nearly 2,000 lives, after the Supreme court allowed it. This became a national event, even though we have a sizable population of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, among others. 

Suno India’s Sneha Richhariya and Menaka Rao took interviews of young persons in their 20s, all of who were born after the Babri Masjid demolition. We attempt to understand what they think about this national event, what it symbolises, and how they understand secularism. 

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Kala Azar, a deadly parasitic disease, is very close to elimination in India. As per the World Health Organisation, the definition of elimination is the annual incidence of less than one case per 10,000 population at block level. The last few districts which are on the borderline remain in Jharkhand, and public officials appear confident that this year, the country may achieve the elimination target. The target has to be kept for 3 years for it to receive a WHO tag.

Suno India is publishing a series of podcasts related to Kala Azar elimination. Suno India’s Menaka Rao travelled to Jharkhand and Bihar for the reporting of these podcasts. Reporting for this story was supported by the MSF-DNDi Grant on Neglected Tropical Diseases as part of the Without Borders Media Fellowship. The fellowship encourages independent, impartial and neutral reporting on health and humanitarian crises.

In the first episode of this mini-series, Suno India’s consulting editor Menaka Rao talks about the challenges of another complication related to kala-azar called Post Kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis. This can manifest in about 5-10% of patients who recovered from kala-azar. This disease is now scientifically proven to spread kala-azar in the community. This disease is hard to detect, and cure. Menaka speaks to persons affected by this disease, and other health workers who are trying hard to control it in the community. 

References

Kala-azar in India – progress and challenges towards its elimination as a public health problem

KALA-AZAR SITUATION IN INDIA

Kala Azar and its subsequent skin manifestation, PKDL, shattered these women's lives, left them with uncertainty, stigma

Xenodiagnosis to evaluate the infectiousness of humans to sandflies in an area endemic for visceral leishmaniasis in Bihar, India: a transmission-dynamics study

Ten years of kala-azar in west Bengal, Part I. Did post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis initiate the outbreak in 24-Parganas? - PMC

DNDi’s Centres of Excellence: Towards the sustainable elimination of visceral leishmaniasis in India

Safety and Effectiveness of Miltefosine in Post–Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis: An Observational Study - PMC

Kala Azar and its subsequent skin manifestation, PKDL, shattered these women's lives, left them with uncertainty, stigma

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On November 21, Pranshu who is a 16-year old queer child, died of suicide in Ujjain. The school going child was a self taught makeup artist, with nearly 17,000 followers on Instagram. Pranshu posted a reel dressed in a sari, which went viral during Diwali, getting more than 4000 comments, most of which were homophobic in nature.

Last year, another class 10 student, Aarvey Malhotra died of suicide. His mother, Aarti Malhotra has alleged that Aarvey was bullied mercilessly in school on account of his sexuality, and that his school authorities were not responsive to their complaints and failed to protect him.

In the recent past, there have been many conversations about protection of children in the social media space. Whistleblowers of Meta have alleged that Meta knew its products were harming children, particularly young girls but did not do enough to protect them. In October, many US states filed a lawsuit arguing that Meta has contributed to a youth mental health crisis. What is missing in these discussions are the experiences of queer children. 

Suno India’s Menaka Rao spoke to Rohin Bhatt, a queer rights lawyer and activist and a bioethicist to understand what kind of legal and policy framework can help protect queer children, but also help create a safe space online. 

References

'My Child Did Nothing Wrong,' Mother of Queer Artist Who Died By Suicide in MP

“The school has killed me”: Arvey Malhotra’s mother recalls his suicide note and elaborates on the bullying that led to her son’s death; awaits justice even after 4 months - Times of India

Congress Is Pushing An Online Safety Bill Supported By Anti-LGBTQ Groups

https://twitter.com/BhattRohin/status/1729734070261658026/photo/1

Yes, We Exist (@yesweexistindia) • Instagram photos and videos

Filmmaker Onir says his movie script on gay soldier has been rejected by defence ministry: 'I won't demean anybody'.

National and Delhi Commissions for Protection of Child Rights on opposing sides on adoption by same-sex couples – The Leaflet

Kerala HC asks government to take appropriate action against ‘NGO’ that calls queerness “wokeism” and “rainbow mafia” – The Leaflet

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